Introduction

“What the Buddha Taught” is a timeless text of the heart and pith of Buddhism. In

my book review, I will explain the four reasons making this book an amazing read: (1)

Comprehensive and well-structured; (2) Authentic and easily understandable; (3) Practical

with real-world application and (4) Pleasurable and interesting to read.

1 Comprehensive and Well-structured

This book is very comprehensive covering all the essential and fundamental

teachings of the Buddha, including but not limited to the Four Noble Truths, the Five

Aggregates, the Noble Eightfold Path. However, it is not as dull and complex as some

would expect. Instead, it is very clear and concise. One would be surprised how Dr

Rahula was able to condense the Buddha’s 45 years of preaching into just 148 pages of

well-structured texts.

The book consists of 8 thoughtfully organized chapters. It started with The Buddha,

giving an account of the Buddha’s life, his origination and his family, as well as his

journey to finding the method to eliminate suffering and how he became the ‘Enlightened

one’. I believe Dr Rahula purposely kept this part brief with only 2 pages as he wanted to

emphasize the Buddha’s teachings instead of his history. This is because unlike other

religions, the core of Buddhism is not the worship of a God or leader, but the Buddha’s

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teaching, as mentioned by the Buddha before his death: “What I have taught and laid

down…will be your teacher when I am gone.”

This part is followed by Chapter One - The Buddhist Attitude of Mind, preparing

readers with the right attitude to read the following chapters. “Man is his own master” is

announced from the start, reminding the readers that their destiny is only controlled by

themselves and they should work hard to achieve the goal of Enlightenment. On the

journey of finding the truth, any doubts have to be cleared. Concepts of ‘belief’, ‘truth’

and ‘religion’ are also addressed here, which is especially helpful for a Western reader,

who may have a set of assumptions from other religion. As distinguished from other

religions, Buddhism is not built on ‘blind’ faith, but ‘seeing’, knowing and understanding

the truth. The Buddha is well-known for his down-to-earth attitude, as mentioned in the

book: “Freedom of thought allowed by the Buddha is unheard of elsewhere in the history

of religions”. Despite the differences from other religions, the Buddha reminded his

followers not to condemn the religions of others, promoting respect and tolerance.

4 out of 8 chapters are committed to the Four Noble Truths, reflecting its importance

and allowing readers to follow this concept step-by-step.

Firstly, according to Chapter Two - The First Noble Truth: Dukkha, the concept of

Suffering (dukkha) was explained. Other than the ordinary meaning of ‘misery’, ‘sorrow’

or ‘pain’, the word also carries with it deeper meanings like ‘emptiness’, ‘impermanence’

or ‘imperfection’. We are advised to understand it as a fact of life and cannot be prevented.

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We are also advised to accept the sufferings in life to attain full liberation. The Five

Aggregates which consists of Matter, Sensations, Perceptions, Mental Formations and

Consciousness are also explained. From there we realize that an ‘individual’ is always

changing and we should accept it and not attach too much to different things in life.

Secondly, according to Chapter There - The Second Noble truth: Samudaya: ‘The

Arising of Dukkha’, ‘thirst’ is explained. ‘Thirst’ means all kinds of cravings, desires and

ignorances we have in life. There are 3 kinds of thirst that gives rise to suffering and all

problems in life: (1) thirst for sense-pleasures, (2) thirst for existence and becoming and (3)

thirst for non-existence (self-annihilation). Human beings are also ignorant of the nature

of life. We are advised to discard all of them, or else the cycle of continuity (saṃsāra) will

last forever. The concept of ‘karma’ is also explained. ‘Karma’ means all the volitional

actions that you intend to do. Good karma produces good effects and bad karma produces

bad effects. This inspired me to do more wholesome acts in my daily life.

Thirdly, according to Chapter Four - The Third Noble Truth: Nirodha: ‘The

Cessation of Dukkha’, the concept of ‘Nirvāṇa’ is explained. Nirvāṇa is the state we can

attain when suffering ceased to exist. It is neither negative nor positive and is the Absolute

Noble Truth. It is the ultimate goal so there can be nothing to happen after it. No adequate

words can be used to describe it because it can only be experienced. We are advised to

realize it because anyone who realizes it is the happiest being in the world.

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 Lastly, according to Chapter Five - The Four Noble Truth: Magga: ‘The Path’, the

‘Middle Path’ is explained. It is named as the ‘Middle Path’ because it does not represent

the two extreme ends. It is also understood as the ‘Noble Eightfold Path’ and it leads to

the cessation of suffering. Eight factors are introduced: (1) Right Understanding, (2) Right

Thought, (3) Right Speech, (4) Right Action, (5) Right Livelihood, (6) Right Effort, (7) Right

Mindfulness and (8) Right Concentration. They can promote the 3 essential elements of

Buddhist training: (1) Ethical Conduct, (2) Mental Discipline and (3) Wisdom. We are

advised to follow the 8 factors of the path and keep to it for our whole life. For example, I

can develop love and compassion to the living beings and I can also get rid of the evil

thoughts in my mind.

This is followed by Chapter Six - The Doctrine of No-Soul: Anatta, which explains

the concept of ‘no-soul’. The Buddha rejects the existence of a permanent entity called

‘self’ or ‘soul’ in man. The Buddha admits that his teaching was “against the current” as it

contradicts with many other religions, which states that God creates a soul for each

human being and the soul will continue to exist in a different form after death. The

concept of ‘Conditioned Genesis’ is also explained. It refers to the cycle that naturally

exists in life, that everything is based on the condition of the existence of another thing.

Everything is interdependent and interconnected. Therefore, there cannot be a self which

is permanent and exists eternally. We are advised to remove this false belief and pursue

the “light of wisdom”.

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 The last two chapters are about real-world applications: Chapter Seven -

‘Meditation’ or Mental Culture: Bhavanana and Chapter Eight - What the Buddha

Taught and the World Today, which will be explained in details in later sections. The

book ends with 40 pages of Selected Texts translated from the original Pali Canon,

including “Universal Love”, “The Words of Truth” and “The Fire Sermon”. The end ing

text is “The Last Words of the Buddha”, in which the Buddha reminded the bhikkhus to

accomplish their aim with diligence, corresponding to the beginning advice that each

person must work out his emancipation. All of these show that the book is well-organised.

2 Authentic and Easily Understandable

This book is authentic without any pedantry. Although Dr Rahula is the first

Buddhist monk who holds a professional chair in the Western academic arena as the

Professor of History and Religions at Northwestern University, he is not conceited aiming

to show off any opinion. Instead, he relied heavily on the earliest ancient text - Tipitaka

(Pali Canon) and translated them into clear modern English. As Dr Rahula is a highly

regarded and educated Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka with Pali as his native language,

we can expect his translations of the ancient texts to be unquestionably accurate with no

distortion of meaning. He also strives to present the notion of the form used by the

Venerable Gotama by keeping the synonyms and repetitions deliberately.

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 The authenticity is beneficial to two types of target audiences addressed in Preface:

the knowledgeable and the novice. To the knowledgeable, direct references to the various

sutra provides them with an opportunity to conduct further study in any topics

mentioned. To the novice who has never came across Buddhist teachings, the translated

Pali Canon allows them to compare the source with the interpretation. Special terms are

explained in brackets. For examples, “mental concentration (samatha or samādhi)”.

Glossary also helps them to understand the esoteric terms and the footnotes help to

explain the context in which the phrase was uttered. Dr Rahula is skilled in explaining

even the most difficult topics, including No-Self (Anatta), Conditioned Genesis (Paticca-

samuppada) and Suffering (dukkha).

Besides, Dr Rahula made the book easily understandable by clarifying many

misunderstandings people usually have on the concepts. For example, many people

believe Buddhism is pessimistic because it always emphasizes on suffering but Dr Rahula

said that there is no question of pessimism or optimism and suffering is a reality of life.

Also, Dr Rahula dispelled the myths and criticisms regarding the Buddha. In Chapter 6,

there is a story about the Buddha keeping silent when asked a lot of questions. Some may

question on his silence when he always encourages his followers to clarify their doubts. In

response to this, Dr Rahula explains that the Buddha is not a computing machine to

answer any questions without consideration. He will only answer questions if answering

them will improve his followers’ understandings. In sum, the preservation of authenticity

makes the book easily understandable by any reader.

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 3 Practical with Real-world Application

Even though the book was written more than 40 years ago in 1978, it is still relevant

to our daily life with real-world application. This is especially obvious in the last two

chapters of the book. In Chapter 7, Dr Rahula provided practical guidelines as to how we

can put Buddhist teachings into practice through meditation. On pages 69 to 70, he taught

us ‘The Mindfulness or Awareness of in-and-out breathing’. He went so detailed as to

giving us solutions on the potential difficulties we may face when practicing this exercise,

as well as spelling out the frequency and duration of which we can do this exercise: “twice

daily, morning and evening, for about five or ten minutes at a time”. I have tried this

accordingly for a few days and I believed it helped to calm my mind when I felt nervous

or frustrated.

In Chapter 8, Dr Rahula told us methods on applying the Buddhist teachings to the

world today. For instance, the six directions including east, south, west, north, nadir and

zenith represents six different relationships in life. This can help us to act according to

what the Buddha said when different relationships, such as parents and children, teachers

and pupil and husband and wife. Another example is the ‘Ten Duties of the Kind’ which

can be applied by politicians today.

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 “Fruitless is the well-spoken word of one who does not practice it,” said the Buddha.

It is of paramount importance for us to apply the Buddha’s teachings in daily life and this

book has done a successful job in assisting readers in doing so.

4 Pleasurable and Interesting to Read

This book is very pleasurable to read with numerous intriguing examples

throughout the chapters. On pages 11 to 12, the metaphor of a raft is used to illustrate the

Buddha’s teaching. A raft can help a man to cross the river from the dangerous side of the

shore to the safe side. Similarly, the Buddha’s teaching can also help one to go from a state

full of suffering to enlightenment. This vivid example with things we can encounter in our

daily life can hugely enhance our understanding of the topic.

Apart from the examples, the illustrations in the book also help make reading the

book a pleasing experience for the readers. These illustrations are mostly Buddhist

scriptures from around the world and their description are included in the very first

section of the book: List of Illustrations. They can help paint a picture of the Buddha in

our mind. For instance, the scripture ‘The Buddha as the Great Doctor for the Ills of the

World’ from Japan is used. By looking at the Buddha holding a casket of medicine in his

left hand, I realize that human beings are all ‘sick’ because we all have sufferings and we

can get ‘cured’ and be liberated only if we take the ‘medicine’ by the Buddha, which is his

teachings.

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 Moreover, this book is available in audiobooks. The narrator beautifully presented

the text with his calm and peaceful voice. This allows me to know the pronunciation to the

Pali terms and attracted me to listen to the book.

As this book is not a novel, it can be boring for any beginner in Buddhism.

Nonetheless, this is not the case. The writing style of Dr Rahula makes the book

compelling and easy to read and the examples, illustrations and audiobooks are elements

which further enhance it.

Conclusion

All things considered, this book is comprehensive, authentic, practical and

interesting. This book can provide lots of inspirations and reflections to readers. No matter

the reader is in any walks of life, is a novice or an expert in Buddhism, he can still benefit

greatly from the book. This book is surely a timeless text that can be referred to again and

again.

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